Satish began working on justice issues in 1990, helping to set up human rights solidarity campaigns over the use of the death penalty in the Caribbean and the USA. His greatest success is the incredible case of the Cardiff Five (Yusef Abdullahi, Stephen Miller, Tony Paris and the cousins John and Ronnie Actie). His work contributed to the successful appeal of the Cardiff Three in December 1992 (the Actie cousins were acquitted two years earlier).
Unlike most campaigners and journalists, he saw the need to find the real killer and continued investigating, often alone, to achieve that and then secure meaningful changes in the system that had miscarried so badly. Along with Lynette’s mother the late Peggy Pesticcio, he then persuaded the authorities to look for the real killer, by re-opening the case for the first time in 1995. His first book Fitted In: The Cardiff 3 and the Lynette White Inquiry was published by us in 1998 and had a great impact.
The case continued to make history as it was re-opened for the second time a year later, following important developments in policing and forensic science. Mainstream media had ignored this case almost totally since the successful appeals. This helped to convince him and colleagues that the work of The Fitted-In Project was far from over.
The real murderer Jeffrey Gafoor was caught and punished on July 4th 2003 after a superb investigation and the use of novel techniques in DNA testing.This was the first time a miscarriage of justice had been resolved in Britain by the conviction of the real murderer in the DNA age. Three alleged eyewitnesses against the Cardiff Five were convicted of perjury in October 2008 and jailed for 18 months two months later. Within four months 13 serving or retired police officers and two more witnesses were told that they would face trial for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. The trial of the witnesses and eight officers collapsed in controversial circumstances in December 2011. The remaining defendants were formally acquitted a week later.
Satish was the only journalist in the world who was subjected to reporting restrictions that prevented him alone from attending the trial and working on it. It also affected our projects and activities adversely. He continues to highlight the flaws in this extraordinary case previously as our Director and now CEO of The Fitted-In Project. He has worked on several other successful cases. These include the Tamil Two (Samuel Kulsaingham and Premaraj Sivalingham), Raphael Rowe and Michael Davis of the M25 Three, Gary Mills and Tony Poole and the Taylor Sisters (Michelle and Lisa).
Satish has researched several miscarriage of justice cases. These include the Cardiff Five, Gary Mills and Tony Poole, the Newsagent’s Three and currently the extraordinary case of Neil Sayers. (For further information on Sayers’ case see the folder Forensic Science & Miscarriages of Justice). He has also researched issues of after-care for victims of miscarriage of justice, an ignored failing in the tariff system, the use of sport in after-care and also crime prevention.
Satish has worked in television, film and radio, including In the Name of the Father, BBC1’s Panorama and Channel Four’s Trial And Error. His on camera appearances include BBC2’s Black Ink and Channel 4 News. His work on radio consists of Radio 4’s Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Series), You And Yours, Today, Law In Action, among others. Print media work includes articles for The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, The Express, Private Eye, The Western Mail, The Guardian Online and The Times Online. He has also written two books and contributed a chapter to two more.
Fitted In: The Cardiff 3 and the Lynette White Inquiry, published by The Fitted-In Project (1998).
The Criminal Cases Review Commission : Hope for the Innocent, edited by Michael Naughton, published by Palgrave Macmillan (2012) Chapter 6 The Failure of the Review of the Possible Wrongful Convictions Caused by Michael Heath by Satish Sekar p77-96.
The Cardiff Five: Innocent Beyond Any Doubt, published by Waterside Press (2012)
NO DEFENCE: lawyers and miscarriages of justice, edited by Jon Robbins, published by the Justice Gap and the Solicitors’ Journal (2013) The Suspension of Disbelief by Satish Sekar p28-31.
He was the Founder and chief feature writer of the Fitted-In Journal and also Empower-Sport Magazine. He now writes occasionally for EmpowerS Magazine Satish is the Director of The Fitted-In Project (now CEO) and also Empower-Sport Ltd. (Empower-Sport Ltd has charitable status for tax purposes) both of which are not for profit companies limited by guarantee. Satish has also guest lectured at Lincoln University, Nottingham Trent University, Portsmouth University and Staffordshire University. He conducted a Working Breakfast (conference) at the prestigious Tequendama Hotel in Bogotá, Colombia for the Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal y Ciencias Forenses (see http://fittedin.org/fittedin/?p=87). Clients of his consultancy work includes Ken Livingstone (then Mayor of London) on police reform, police complaints mechanisms and DNA data-basing, the renowned solicitors Gareth Peirce and Steven Bird. He also worked for Birnberg/Peirce and Magrath & Co. on the case of the Newsagent’s Three (Michael O’Brien, Ellis Sherwood and Darren Hall) and The Sherlock Holmes Museum.
He has a wide range of interests that include history, current affairs, travel, films, reading, writing (fiction), football, cricket, handball, forensic science and legal issues.
Expertise
- Consultancy on forensic science issues in case of Neil Sayers for Steven Bird – funding was approved by Legal Services Commission.
- Recommendations included ground breaking experiments to prove whether maggots could have survived the fire. Legal aid was granted for these experiments to be conducted. The experiments were conducted successfully in Valencia in 2009. Recommendations also included further research on forensic pathology and DNA to be conducted by renowned experts in 2012.
- Consultancy on scientific issues in the case of Michael Stone.
- Consultancy on miscarriages of justice in South Wales
- DNA, including data-basing
- Forensic Pathology
- Fire-related Issues & Forensic entomology
Satish’s range of interests are quoted twice
Thanks Paul. Corrected.